The Steele lab

Where are we?

The Steele lab is in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. The lab is also a part of the Developmental Biology Center at UCI. 

How can you reach us?

Members of the lab can be reached by phone at 949-824-4343 or by fax at 949-824-2688. You can also find out how to contact individual members of the lab by e-mail by clicking on their names below. 

Who are we?

The current members of the Steele lab are:

• Rob Steele, principal investigator
• Nick Stover, graduate student
• Rob's Biosketch

What do we work on?

We study the molecular mechanisms which regulate pattern formation and cell differentiation in Hydra. Two classes of proteins which are likely to play critical roles in these processes are transcription factors containing HOM/HOX type homeodomains and receptor protein-tyrosine kinases. We have, therefore, concentrated our efforts on isolating and examining the functions of genes from Hydra which encode proteins of these two classes. Some relevant references to work done in our lab are as follows.

 Bosch, T.C.G., S.M. Krylow, H.R. Bode, and R.E. Steele (1988). Thermotolerance and synthesis of heat shock proteins: These responses are present in Hydra attenuata but absent in Hydra oligactis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85: 7927-7931.

 Bosch, T.C.G., T.F. Unger, D.A. Fisher, and R.E. Steele (1989). Structure and expression of STK, a src-related gene in the simple metazoan Hydra attenuata. Mol. Cell. Biol. 9: 4141-4151.

 Shenk, M.A., and R.E. Steele (1993). Homeobox genes and epithelial patterning in Hydra. In: Bernfield, M. (ed.) Molecular Basis of Morphogenesis. 51st Annual Symposium of the Society for Developmental Biology. Wiley-Liss, New York, pp. 227-236.

 Shenk, M.A., and R.E. Steele (1993). A molecular snapshot of the metazoan 'Eve.' Trends Biochem. Sci. 18: 459-463.

 Shenk, M.A., H.R. Bode, and R.E. Steele (1993). Expression of Cnox-2, a HOM/HOX gene in hydra, is correlated with axial pattern formation. Development 117: 657-667.

 Shenk, M.A., L. Gee, R.E. Steele, and H.R. Bode (1993). Expression of Cnox-2, a HOM/HOX gene, is suppressed during head formation in Hydra. Dev. Biol. 160: 108-118.

 Chan, T.A., C.A. Chu, K.A. Rauen, M. Kroiher, S.M. Tatarewicz, and R.E. Steele (1994). Identification of a gene encoding a novel protein-tyrosine kinase containing SH2 domains and ankyrin-like repeats. Oncogene 9: 1253-1259.

Steele, R.E., P. Lieu, N.H. Mai, M.A. Shenk, and M.P. Sarras, Jr. (1996). Response to insulin and the expression of a gene encoding an insulin receptor homologue suggest a role for an insulin-like molecule in regulating growth and patterning in Hydra. Dev. Genes Evol. 206: 247-259.

Martinez, D.E., M.-L. Dirksen, P.M. Bode, M. Jamrich, R.E. Steele, and H.R. Bode. The forkhead gene budhead is associated with hydra's head organizer. Dev. Biol., in press.
 

How do we waste our time?

Hydra and some other cnidarians are fed Artemia (brine shrimp) in the laboratory. For a long time Artemia eggs have been sold in kits for children as "sea monkey" eggs.  A cult has grown up around sea monkeys and spawned a number of web sites.  To visit the wonderful world of sea monkeys click here.

Click here to go to the Cnidaria home page.